Car mysteriously dies out, never to restart

Quit whining and try to find out what caused the stall. That's what happened. Shen the engine quits that red light comes on as there is no oil pressure when the engine is not running. If you had been driving with that red light on and it quit, that would be a different story. I doubt that you have major engine damage. You don't know much about cars so don't be ready to buy every idea that comes along. Get someone who knows to check. Pay for a diagnosis if necessary. Start with the fact that you either don't have a spark or fuel and fuel pressure. Hey, could you be out of gas, for example?

That's exactly what happened in this case.

According to the readings on the panel, it has plenty of gas.

Approximately 11/16/03 17:30, Tysteel34 uttered for posterity:

That doesn't jibe... you were driving for some distance with a oil light on? In that case, the squealing you heard may have been your engine trying to get your attention as it rips itself to shreds internally. How *FAR* did you drive with the oil light on? And at what speed? Have you checked the oil and is there plenty? If so, the oil pump may have been the squealer and if you didn't drive very far, not that big a deal to replace.

You are really in a basic trouble shooting mode here. If you haven't already figured out how to get started by checking the power, the fuel [not the lamp, but the actual fuel], etc. you are very likely lacking the skills to get further than you are now.

Didn't see the year of your car, but if it has the onboard diagnostics, the first thing you want to do is pull trouble codes.

I drove a 1968 Chrysler New Yorker for about 35 miles with the red oil light flickering (over a span of two days) incessantly in the late 70's before the 440 died for good. I got $35 dollars from the junkyard for the car (a dollar for every mile I drove with the oil light flickering).

In the 80's, my oil light came on solid on a 76 Dodge Dart (380 if I remember correctly) as I was only a mile and a half from home, on the highway, late at night, in a rain storm. I limped in the slow lane and brought the car to a standstill in my driveway. They towed it to the junkyard from there. I paid 20 dollars for the tow.

Luckily, I've owned Japanese for the rest of my automotive driving career, and nary a red light is to be seen on the dashboard. But, take it from me, you might get a mile, or you might get forty miles, but, you won't get much driving done after you drive with the red light on.

Alora Duncan

I was driving it for maybe 15 seconds with the red light on as I was attempting to find a convenience store to pull into. I was going no faster than 20mph, since I was just leaving the auto insurance place and pulling out onto the main road. The car just suddenly died out, and some people helped me push it out of the way of traffic.

There's plenty of oil. But I wouldn't rule out the chance that it could've been possibly contaminated with maybe something leaking into it. The car also has fuel, because I put some in the car before leaving that day.

I have a question about the voltage regulator, as someone at the auto parts store told me that could be a cause of the problem, which I doubt. If there were a problem with the voltage regulator going out, wouldn't the battery been completely drained out? Like I said in my initial posting, I had the battery checked out at the auto parts store, and they told me it's still good.

I also thought about the possibility that my distributor cap just went out, but if it were something like that, why would the oil light come on? if something with the fuel pump went out, for example, why would the oil light come on?

It is a 1994 chevy corsica. thanks for you help so far.

So what if there's oil "in" the engine? That's not what the oil warning light indicates. If the the oil pump failed, the oil filter blew off, or something else happened to stop the oil flow, all the oil would be sitting in the pan while the engine chews itself to shreds high and dry above the oil. DO NOT continue to drive a car with the oil lamp on. EVER! (unless you're being chased and shot at)

IOW, you killed two perfectly good automobiles. Don't blame that on them being American-made.

Means nothing if it isn't circulating.

3.1 or 3.4 v6? Check for coolant contamination in the oil. You may have snapped a camshaft due to coolant sludge blocking oil passages- a known problem on these if no one catches the fact that coolant is leaking into the oil.

Does the engine crank or is it locked solid? If it cranks, does it have a strange "lurching" rhythm to the cranking (sign of a broken cam).

Yes, you have conflicting information. If the oil-pressure light was simply an indication that the car was fluttering and was about to die, then it might simply be that you were running so roughly (for other reasons than oil pressure) that the light flickered as the car stumbled and gasped for air/fuel/spark/timing/compression.

So, now that your car is not starting, you really have a simpler problem. Just assume that! Yup. Assume your car isn't starting and start from there.

There are only 5 major items to check: GAS AIR SPARK TIMING COMPRESSION

- Is the engine cylinder getting gasoline:air in the 14:1 ratio it needs? - Is it getting a spark at the right timing of the compression stroke? - Do you have compression as the engine cranks?

GAS AIR SPARK TIMING COMPRESSION

Approximately 11/17/03 05:09, Tysteel34 uttered for posterity:

Voltage regulator? Ok, possibly, but check outside for pigs flying by in formation.

You are really just too far all over the map to be either thinking or working on this yourself.

How on *earth* would it be possible for a distributor cap to cause the oil light to come on, or even make the unidentified squealing noise.

Get this car to someone and ask them to perform a quick check before you destroy it.

I checked the car out a couple of hours ago, and it appears that the engine is locked solid. I checked it with someone who is a little bit more knowledgable about mechanics than me. I noticed that when checking out the drive belt and pulleys, that the pulley on the motor is frozen and won't move. I used a ratchet to see if I could make it budge, but it was of no use.

Looks like the motor is shot, so I'll have to start to save up for another car. Perhaps it could run again by entailing costly repairs, but considering that the car has other problems with it (blown exhaust gasket, damaged cylinder head, busted heater, steering completely out of alignment), I'd just be better off saving the money on repairs and using it towards the purchase of another car. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll have another car by christmas.

thanks for all the help and suggestions.

"I checked the car out a couple of hours ago, and it appears that the engine is locked solid. I checked it with someone who is a little bit more knowledgable about mechanics than me. I noticed that when checking out the drive belt and pulleys, that the pulley on the motor is frozen and won't move. I used a ratchet to see if I could make it budge, but it was of no use."

If it's clearly locked-up when you hit the starter and won't turn over with a ratchet (with the plugs removed), you're pretty much at the end of the road given the other problems with the car. In a way, it's nice to be free of that monster.

The good news, now that you know the engine is siezed, is that you can call your car insurance company to cancel the insurance. They should give you most of (but perhaps not all) the money back for the unused days, if you're lucky.

As I said, I've gotten 35 miles, 1 mile, and 4 laps on engines without oil before all died.

Oh, I didn't tell you about the 4 laps. I was renting a house just after graduating from college and we had to mow the lawn with the landlord's push gasoline lawnmower. I didn't know it had no oil (there was no 'check engine' light :) and I started it up and got about 4 laps around the yard before it stalled, never to restart, no matter how hard I pulled on that string.

The landlord said he had to replace the engine.

So, there it is (at least for me) proof positive you can drive with low oil pressure for 35 miles in a Chrysler New Yorker, 1 mile in a Dodge Dart &

4 laps in a Sears lawnmower before complete engine failure occurs. YMMV